Artist Statement and Bio

Ali Sykes

Artist Statement/Bio

Artist Statement:

            My entire art career, the pieces I have produced have primarily been a result of an assignment or prompt or project. I first began seriously practicing art in high school, as my passion for it was sparked in an art class. From there, I continued taking art classes each year. Summers were plagued with commissions in an effort to desperately make money, especially the summer before I left for my first year of college when I was commissioned to paint a mural in a baby nursery that took up the whole wall. I was very proud of this, as it was the largest piece I had ever done, however, it still wasn’t me. Of course, I doodled and sketched in between assignments and projects, but I never considered those to be works of art, rather, just something to do with my hand when I was bored. It wasn’t until this particular class where I truly began to discover my own style as an artist and felt a sense of self-pride and ownership over my work. I would consider myself a very creative person, and in the past I tried my best to make assignments my own, but there’s only so much you can do when given a specific prompt. But this semester, for the first time I was given such little guide lines on my work, which honestly freaked me out a bit, but also prompted me to grow and improve.

 My process of self-growth as an artist began after the collage assignment (however, at that time I just thought that everything was falling apart for me). During critique, a student mentioned that he could clearly see another student’s “style” in their piece, and then a third student commented that everyone’s style seemed to have a funny way of coming out, regardless of what the piece was. However, looking at my piece, I would have had no idea that I created it if I wasn’t me. I realized that I didn’t have a “style,” and this bothered me. Then, we began working on our alter ego projects, which was the perfect recipe for disaster for me, as I was already questioning myself. I pondered over this project for hours, unsure of what to create. An alter ego is supposed to be someone you’re not, and in order for me to create a representation of what I’m not, I had to know who I am. And I didn’t. I spent a while during and right after that project feeling a bit lost and unsure of myself, especially in my work.

Eventually I decided that I just needed to do something, anything, so I began drawing little things everyday. I drew doodles of people and characters, which I created, but were ultimately based off of people I knew and saw. I was drawing inspiration from the world around me much more than I ever had before. In artwork I had done in classes with guidelines and expectations, it was easy to come up with a concept in my head to answer the given prompt. But when I wasn’t given any guiding instructions, I felt inadequate as an artist because I couldn’t figure out what to create, when in reality, I needed to realize that the answers weren’t all in my head. We, as humans, are a product of the world around us, and I needed to reflect on that world and allow it to inspire me. Thoughts and ideas don’t just fabricate out of thin air, they are a reaction to what we experience. I felt so detached from myself when I first began this personal drawing project of mine, but slowly I began realizing that I was developing my own style and I was having a lot of fun doing it. The reason I never felt like I had my own style was because I never spent the time exploring art in my own way, I was always just meeting expectations and following guidelines. But now, suddenly I felt proud of what I was creating, and everyday I looked forward to being able to come home and draw. I finally felt the sense of self-pride and ownership in my own work that I was missing before. All of this lead me to my final project.

When considering my final project, unlike usual, I developed my idea for it pretty quickly. In fact, I already had somewhat of an idea for this project when we began the mail art assignment, so I used that assignment to somewhat prepare and practice for this. I knew that I wanted to do portraits, but this time I wanted to allow the world around me to be part of my work more than ever. I wanted to go beyond drawing people I created, and make pieces of real people. I also wanted to give up some control over my pieces by not giving myself the power to choose whom I portray in each portrait. In order to do this, I posted on social media for people to send me pictures of their face for a project, and took the first 9 people to respond to my post, regardless of how well I knew them. I found it interesting how much I could learn about each person just based off the picture they sent me. Some people sent me selfies they had just taken right then for the purpose of this project, some people sent me selfies that had clearly been at different times for the purpose of showing others and looking good, and some people sent me cropped pictures of their faces from family photos, pictures with friends, or professional portraits. This made me think about the act of taking a picture of oneself, and how differently everyone feels about it. After finishing my first portrait, I felt that it would be fitting to post each one on social media because of its nature of being a selfie. As I began posting more, increasing amounts of people commented and messaged me asking me to draw them (for free). Lots of people have an obsession with themselves, especially in this society that is revolved round social media and posting oneself everywhere.

Another decision I made for these pieces it that I wanted them to be done in nonconventional colors. I do wholeheartedly believe that people should be proud of their ethnicity, and am in no way trying to say otherwise through this piece. Especially as a white person, I don’t think it is my place to make claims on topics associated with race and ethnicity. With this piece, though, I wanted to represent these people in a way that steps beyond the normal scope of human coloring. To best do this, I chose to use gouache as my medium. This project definitely came with a big learning curve attached, because I had never used gouache before. I was really nervous to start on my first piece, but luckily found that I really enjoy using gouache. My skills and understanding of the medium improved greatly with each piece.

Bio:

I am a practicing artist who was born and grew up in Washington state, which shaped me a lot as a person. I consider where I came from a part of my identity. I currently attend Chapman University, where I have recently left animation behind and begun studying fine arts with a minor in entrepreneurship, and plan to graduate with a BFA in the spring of 2021. I first began practicing art as a sophomore in high school, when I was required to satisfy an art credit. I set down my softball bat and picked up a paintbrush and never looked back. I have been an artist ever since. My work has been featured in the Chapman University Guggenheim Gallery 2018 fall Departmental Show, and the Chapman University Guggenheim Gallery 2019 spring Departmental Show. In the fall of 2019, I will intern at Night Gallery, where I look forward to gaining first-hand experience in the art world.

           

*Hi Cindy, I know this is perhaps somewhat of an unusual and lengthy artist statement, but I felt like it was important to explain my growth in your class and how everything helped to create my final project. This semester has truly been a time of reflection for me that I didn’t even know I needed. I essentially hit rock bottom this semester (not because of this class), and being forced to think about myself and who I am as an artist made things worse at first, but ultimately allowed me to figure out who I am. While I know this project in and of itself may not be all that profound, it a product of all this semester has taught me and I'm quite proud of it, and I'm just now realizing that I haven't felt this kind of pride towards my artwork before. Thank you for everything.